The Power of Food in Recovery

Throughout the years I spent intertwined with my eating disorder, food held more power over me than any other element of my life. It dictated my social life, my mood, and my entire sense of self. During treatment, I assumed that facing “fear foods” and talking about my feelings around challenging meals was meant to take away food’s power. I thought that recovery meant reaching a point at which food has no influence in my life whatsoever.

Like many of my expectations about recovery, I was wrong about this one. Instead of being a reason for disengagement and social isolation, food has become a tool for exploring the world and connecting with others. The harder I fight against my eating disorder, the more food serves to strengthen my recovery and enrich my life. It has power, but in a very different way.

In the throes of my eating disorder, I began creating elaborate and tediously constructed meals for my friends and family. I now know this behavior was a natural biological response to starvation. But I think it was more than biological for me. Feeding others was my unconscious way of feeling connected to a world that would remain foreign to me as long as I held on to my eating disorder. I was missing out on the world of joyful eating.

As I gradually untangled my appetite from the grasp of the eating disorder, I discovered my passion for experimenting with flavor trying new foods with others. Food and eating now have the power to enrich my relationships. I collaborate with my mom over which spices will make the perfect marinade for a night’s dinner. I tweak nearly every recipe I make to make it my own. I get to try things I would never think to create when others cook for me.

A therapist at the Emily Program once told me she thought that eating was a truly intimate human experience. Every person’s food preferences are unique to them. Cooking and eating a meal with someone else is like sharing a little part of my soul with them.

The next time you share a meal with someone, think about all the things you are sharing besides calories. Just like the body needs food to live, your soul needs connection with others to thrive. Recovery requires nourishing both body and soul, and I think there is something truly powerful about being able to do both at once.

-written by Maia Polson

Becoming Sunshine Again

An Intensive Outpatient program client shares some reflections (the word “comfort” in this means “junk food”):

“Before Emily”

    Once I was Sunshine and then a long time ago I entered a foggy,
confusing, shadowy place.

        It was difficult at first, but then I coped and “comforted”
myself.  The storm rolled in and got gray and I continued to “comfort”
myself.

One day I realized it was dark...pitch black, but I adapted quite well by
adding more “comforts”.  It became a safe, familiar place, where I was
“comforted” almost continually.

Then despair began to set in as I suddenly lost my coping skills.
I sought help for me (wow, that was unusual!).  At this place of help, I fought some things, embraced some things, tried new things, kept an open
mind.

Then one day I saw it wasn’t pitch black anymore.  It was still gray,
but I could see things.  I felt things and that was uncomfortable.  My
tears (hadn’t seen for years) began to clean the windows and more light
began  
to enter.  I was no longer comfortable, safe, and secure.   I was in
uncharted waters.  It was easier being in the dark, familiar place and
climbing
out was hard.  Many times I wanted the security of the familiar and not to
feel. 

But I refused to pull the shades again.

It’s a long journey and not yet over, but now I know I can do
it and that I am worthy of it.  I am not angry or mad at myself (didn’t
know at first that I was!).  I have forgiven myself for the abuse of my
body.   My body didn’t care that I forgave myself...however, my mind
cares.  I forgive others in my life that hurt me.  There is peace in
forgiving.  I am becoming Sunshine again.

Adolescent COE IOP program to begin at Burnsville location this summer

The Emily Program’s Adolescent Compulsive Overeating Intensive Outpatient summer program (COE IOP) provides a remarkable opportunity for teens to come together and get the support they need in a relaxed environment during the summer months.

Our COE IOP integrates Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) into group sessions to help adolescents change the way they think about food, activity and their body. Through CBT, they learn how to overcome emotional barriers to life situations and improve stress management skills.

We provide therapeutic meals and one snack each session along with nutrition education and dietary counseling. We also include body movement sessions to help an adolescent experience, process and share what body movement means for him or her. This group reinforces the value of all kinds of activity, from meditation to stretching, playing games, and walks.

Who: Male and Female Adolescents ages 12 to 18 years old

Session Length: 8 weeks, Mondays and Wednesdays from Monday June 21 to Wednesday August 18. Each session will begin at 9 am and end at 1:30 pm.

Family Participation: Parents attend an orientation session with their  child and are encouraged to ask questions and get support from staff and other families during a number of ongoing events throughout the 8-week period. Friends and family are also invited to participate in some of our therapeutic meals.

A Typical Day:

9:00-10:00 am: Group Therapy/Individual Check-In; lead by Therapist
10:00-10:30 am: Snack; with Therapist and provided by RD
10:30-11:30 am: Nutrition Education; lead by RD
11:30-12:00 pm: Body Movement Group; lead by RD and Therapist
12:00-1:00 pm: Experiential Meal; facilitated by RD and Therapist
1:00-1:30 pm: Check-out and Planning; lead by Therapist and RD

For more information call Angie Segner, client care coordinator, at (651) 645 5323 ext. 1432.

A Mindful Summer

It’s hard to remain mindful in the bustle of everyday life, even if you aren’t already working on recovery.
That’s why we’re excited to offer a mindfulness meditation group to all Emily Program clients this summer at our St. Louis Park office.  The group will meet for 9 weeks (June 23 - August 18 ) and will include instruction on basic mindfulness meditation principles and practice.  Each session will also include a mindful eating component. 
We’ll work on incorporating a daily meditation practice and applying mindfulness skills to everyday activities—including eating disorder recovery.  Participants will be expected to dedicate 30 minutes a day, outside of the group, to practicing mindfulness techniques. 
The group will meet on Wednesday mornings, from 8:30 to 10 AM and is led by Helene Keery, PhD, LP and Amy Patefield, RD, LD.  To learn more, call 651.645.5323, ext. 1432. Peace!

Photos, Metaphors & Recovery

Photographs are a tangible way to identify and express hope for  change; they are also vehicles to challenge long held perceptions about self and ED.

That’s why Emily Program dietician Angela Staples (a professional photographer) and therapist Doug Perry started a new PhotoTherapy group at our Saint Louis Park office.

Doug says: “The group helps clients see their lives through a different lens using existing and client-generated photographs as metaphors to reveal new ways of thinking, feeling and acting related to recovery and life in general.”

The PhotoTherapy group meets Thursdays in St Louis Park from 5:00-6:30 PM starting June 3. It is open to all ages, all diagnoses and all levels of functioning.  The only requirements are that a client has 1) access to their own cameras (and has basic understanding of using it) and 2) the desire to add a creative approach to their recovery.

The photo “assignments” will focus on relationship with self and others, relationship with food, relationship with body, exploration of emotions, and exploration of themes seen in previous photos taken.

Call 651.645.5323 from more information.

The swimsuit: Fashion vs. function

I live in a house with two other twenty-something women, so you can almost always find a Victoria’s Secret catalog floating around somewhere in the common area. The catalogs usually don’t get to me; I tend to find Victoria’s Secret’s photographic touch-ups to be laughably obvious and unnatural. But when I glanced at one of the catalogs spread open to a page of swimsuits, I had to stop and think.

The featured woman was scantily clad in a suit with three cloth triangles covering her breasts and pubic area, and both the bra and bikini were held together with string-like extensions of the same material. I couldn’t help but think to myself that no woman would buy that swimsuit in the interest of comfort. Whether consciously or not, a swimsuit like that is only designed, purchased, and worn for attraction or seduction. Comfort and functionality have no role.

I felt a small rush of anger flow through me as I looked. Though most bikinis are not quite as skimpy as this one was, they are usually designed with the same priorities in mind. What I want to know is this: what unequivocal authority claimed that swimsuits cannot be designed solely for comfort? And why are we listening?

Many women wear revealing swimsuits because they want to tan as much skin as possible. But a fellow client at the Emily Program recently made an excellent point: when will one ever need a tan stomach except in a swimsuit? The only time you need your stomach tan is when you wear the suit.

I personally use my suit for swimming, diving into the water, and doing water sports like tubing. I prefer to get behind a speedboat with confidence in the fact that I won’t have to bail out after getting “pants-ed” by the boat’s wake. Chances are that if I buy a comfy suit this year, that issue will be irrelevant…even if that means wearing a (gasp!) one-piece.

I have decided for myself that comfort will rule my swimsuit purchases for the season. Of course, I’m going to choose one in a pretty color and a print that I love, one that speaks to my personality. But the design of the suit will be completely determined by what feels best on my body. I am officially in the market for a swimsuit that (1) hugs my waist without suffocating it, (2) fully supports my bust, (3) won’t fall off while tubing, and (4) has a cut that sits nice and firmly on my rear. In other words, I want my suit to honor my healthy body and what it wants to do, not what society expects it to look like. At least I know I’ll have a better time. And ultimately, that’s all that matters, anyway.

-Anonymous

EPers Lobby for Federal Eating Disorders Law

More than 100 citizen lobbyists from 25 states (including 3 Emily Program staff) fanned out across the US Capitol last week to advocate for the proposed Federal Response to Eliminate Eating Disorders Act (aka the FREED Act) during the Eating Disorders Coalition’s annual Lobby Day. 

(Rep. Keith Ellison with MN Lobby Day team)

That same day (April 27), the FREED Act was introduced for the first time in the US Senate by Tom Harkin (IA).

The FREED Act is the first comprehensive legislation to confront the seriousness of these diseases by jump starting research and improving the prevention, screening, diagnosis and treatment of eating disorders.

(Sen. Harkin with Dr. Leslie Murray)

Usually, citizen lobbyists only get to meet with a lawmaker’s staff members. But The Emily Program’s Kitty Westin led a team that met with Minnesota’s two Senators Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken (both FREED Act co-sponsors) and Minnesota Representatives  Keith Ellison, Michele Bachmann, Tim Walz and John Kline. The Emily Program’s Dr. Jillian Croll and Joe Kelly, veterans of previous Lobby Days, led teams of concerned citizens from Indiana, Iowa, California and Massachusetts.

Kitty also spoke at a Congressional Briefing on the need for eating disorders legislation.

“It’s been 10 years since anorexia killed my daughter Anna. And eating disorders have killed thousands of Americans since then,” Kitty said. “It’s time for Congress to pass FREED as a critical first step in addressing this national emergency.”

Thanks to EDC’s Lobby Day, the FREED Act now has 30 co-sponsors in the House.

The proposed law would expand federal research, improve tracking and recording of the actual numbers of people suffering and dying from these diseases, train a wide array of health professionals and educators to better identify and screen for eating disorders, create a new patient advocacy program to help patients get proper care, authorize grants for eating disorder prevention programs and build on the mental health parity and health care reform bills to improve access to treatment, particularly for teens covered by Medicaid. In fact, for the first time, children on Medicaid would be screened for eating disorders.

Read press coverage @ http://www.mndaily.com/2010/04/28/bill-aids-eating-disorder-care.

Learn how you can support the bill at http://eatingdisorderscoalition.org/LetterWritingCampaign2009.htm.